Bathtub liners are designed to fit, like a shell, right over your existing bathtub and walls. They are made out of vinyl or plastic and take about 2 weeks to order and can be installed in a day. The cost however versus bathtub refinishing is about $1200 for the bathtub, and $2000 if you include the wall surround. Compare this to the average bathtub refinishing project at UNDER $250 and you can see the savings refinishing offers over liners.

The claims that bathtub liners cannot be chipped or gouged are also not true. In fact, bathtub liners are easily scratched and if a sharp edge is dropped or scraped up against a bathtub liner, it will be damaged.

An improper installed bathtub liner or one that is cheap and installed by inexperienced companies can end up being a headache for you down the road. Bathtub liners tend to leak at the joints, or at the drains and when this happens water will accumulate between the liner and the old bathtub. This will cause your bathtub liner to develop mold, mildew, a bad odor, and a mushy feeling when you are standing on the bathtub floor.

Research has shown that mold spores inhaled, even in small quantities can cause serious health problems. If this happens, the only way to remove the mold is to remove the bathtub liner and disinfect the bathtub.

When the time comes to replace the bathtub liner, expect to end up paying someone quite a bit of money to do it. These bathtub liners are basically glued to your old bathtub and are very difficult to remove and unlike bathtub refinishing, your choices during installation of a bathtub liner are limited. You can expect most bathtub installations to require 2 trips to your home for measuring and another day for installation, not to mention the 2 week ordering period. This is all solved in 1 day by bathtub refinishing.